Shen Kuo was a Chinese polymathic scientist and statesman of the Song dynasty. He was a mathematician, astronomer, meteorologist, geologist, entomologist, anatomist, climatologist, zoologist, botanist, pharmacologist, medical scientist, archaeologist, ethnographer, cartographer, geophysicist, mineralogist, encyclopedist, military general, diplomat, hydraulic engineer, inventor, economist, academy chancellor, finance minister, governmental state inspector, philosopher, art critic, poet, and musician. Shen was the first to describe the magnetic needle compass, which would be used for navigation.
About Shen Kuo in brief
Shen Kuo was a Chinese polymathic scientist and statesman of the Song dynasty. He was a mathematician, astronomer, meteorologist, geologist, entomologist, anatomist, climatologist, zoologist, botanist, pharmacologist, medical scientist, archaeologist, ethnographer, cartographer, geophysicist, mineralogist, encyclopedist, military general, diplomat, hydraulic engineer, inventor, economist, academy chancellor, finance minister, governmental state inspector, philosopher, art critic, poet, and musician. In his Dream Pool Essays or Dream Torrent Essays of 1088, Shen was the first to describe the magnetic needle compass, which would be used for navigation. Alongside his colleague Wei Pu, Shen planned to map the orbital paths of the Moon and the planets in an intensive five-year project involving daily observations, yet this was thwarted by political opponents at court. He also proposed a hypothesis of gradual climate change, after observing ancient petrified bamboos that were preserved underground in a dry northern habitat that would not support bamboo growth in his time. Shen wrote extensively about movable type printing invented by Bi Sheng, and because of his written works the modern understanding of the earliest movabletype has been handed down to later generations. Shen Kuo devised a geological hypothesis for land formation, based upon findings of inland marine fossils, knowledge of soil erosion, and the deposition of silt.
His description of an ancient crossbow mechanism which he himself unearthed proved to be a Jacob’s staff, a surveying tool which wasn’t known in Europe until described by Levi ben Gerson in 1321. He is the first literary figure in China to mention the use of the drydock to repair boats suspended out of water, and also wrote of the effectiveness of the relatively new invention of the canal pound lock. Some of Shen’s poetry was preserved in posthumous written works. He wrote commentary on ancient Daoist and Confucian texts. Shen was born in Qiantang in the year 1031. His father Shen Zhou was a somewhat lower-class gentry figure serving in official posts on the provincial level; his mother was from a family of equal status in Suzhou, with her maiden name being Xu. Shen’s family moved around Sichuan province and finally to the international seaport of Xaportiam at Xapiam at about 1040 AD. He became interested in rural features of China as his youth, while he traveled around rural towns and cities. He served several years in the prestigious judiciary, the equivalent of a national supreme court, in the top tier of China’s judiciary. He died in 1088 at the age of 75. He had a son, Shen Kua, who was a well-known poet and author. He left a large library of works, including works on divination, divination and the supernatural, including his vivid description of unidentified flying objects from eyewitness testimony.
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This page is based on the article Shen Kuo published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 04, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
